£84K paid for possible park and ride site
MAIDSTONE Council paid £84,000 at auc- tion for an eight-acre plot on Bluebell Hill that it may use as a Park and Ride site one day. The wedge of land – between the A229
and the high-speed rail line – is located ei- ther side of the petrol station, on the Maid- stone-bound side of the dual carriageway. John Foster, the council's economic de- velopment manager, described it as a "rare piece of land on that corridor". He agreed that developing it as a P&R site
was one of the options. "But we are talking about the long term," he added. Lib Dem opposition leader Cllr FranWil-
son was "delighted" the land had been bought but "sad" that the council had paid so much. The guide price in the Lambert & Foster auction brochure was £40,000- 50,000. The Lib Dems had wanted to buy the site when they were in power four years ago.
ADOWNSWOODmumis training for her second London Marathon in April in aid of a charity which helps children with sight problems. Anneka Morris, 26, raised £1,500
when she ran in 2007 and is hoping to collect even more through this year’s event. Her chosen charity, the Micro and Anophthalmic Children’s Society, helps youngsters with small-formed eyes, no eyes and sight problems. Registered child minder Anneka,
who lives at Longham Copse, works three days a week with her mum as her assistant. She is married with one
CllrWilson said the price was “reasonable” then but her group lost power to the Tories, who chose not to purchase the land at the time. The new administration had since de-
cided to buy it, but Cllr Wilson said: "It went to auction and the council had to pay considerably more." Meanwhile, Mr Foster said it would have
been a "missed opportunity" not to have bought the Veitch Land, off Chatham Old Road, previously used as a base for High Speed 1 construction works. He added: "If there is a desire - and we
find a need - we have the means to imple- ment something like a park and ride, but don't expect it any time. "It was an opportunity we felt we needed
to grasp. But, in terms of long-term strategy, it still needs to be worked out," he con- cluded.
Maidstone currently has three P&R sites –
child, Owen, who celebrates his sec- ond birthday this month. Anneka, who went to Swadelands
School in Lenham, said she chose MACS because it is a small family- orientated charity based around mak- ing children’s lives happier and easier.
Anneka said: “Having worked in
child care for the last six years, all as- pects of child welfare are valuable to me, which is why I support such a worthwhile cause.” For more information, contact vir-
ginmoneygiving.com/AnnekaMorris, or
www.macs.org.uk
Willington Street, which is council owned; London Road, for which the council pays annual rent of £10,000, till 2022; and Sit- tingbourne Road, where the rent is £141,800 pa but the deal expires in autumn. The lat- ter site is heavily used by KCC staff. Overall, P&R costs Maidstone about £400,000 a year and councillors are keen to find ways of making the scheme more cost- efficient. Users park free but buy a ticket to get a
bus into and out of the town centre, thus easing congestion. As a result, 2,700 fewer vehicle movements are made into town every day. BOXLEY Parish Council never formally discussed buying the Veitch Land, although one member is understood to have sug- gested it would be worth purchasing "be- cause it was there". The idea was not favoured by chairman Cllr Martin Pepper, who told the Downs Mail: "This is public
Marathon mum Anneka asks for support again money and we are not landlords. It
is wrong to plough money into buy- ing land just to see grass growing." Nor was Cllr Pepper impressed
by Maidstone spending £84,000 on "a possibility". He added: "It seems no more than speculative to me. "I don't know if Park and Ride would work there. The logistics of getting buses on to the A229 would be a nightmare. £84,000 would just be the start of massive spending." A few years ago, the parish coun-
cil did consider buying some land as a children's recreation site, about 300 yards further down the road to- wards Sandling, but decided it could not afford it.
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